Perseverance paying off for longtime area coach

Sports profile on San Antonio Christian basketball coach John Valenzuela. Coach "Val" got his 600th career win earlier this year and juggles coaching with being a preacher. Prior to coaching at San Antonio Christian, he coached the Madison basketball team from 2002 to 2010-2011 season. (Kin Man Hui/San Antonio Express-News)

Photo: Kin Man Hui, Staff / San Antonio Express-News

John Valenzuela preaches to his players about fighting through failure, fatigue and frustration.

His basketball team at San Antonio Christian experienced each this season, coping with injuries to key players, a December swoon that included eight losses in a 10-game stretch and the danger of missing the TAPPS 5A playoffs a year after nearly reaching the state tournament. The Lions had to win their regular-season finale against Cornerstone — the team that upset them in last year’s playoffs and beat them by 22 points earlier this year — just to qualify.

San Antonio Christian heeded its coach’s advice, persevered and ended up prevailing, winning 46-40 last week at Cornerstone. Now the Lions (20-20) get a fresh start and the chance to face the second-ranked team in the state, traveling to Houston Second Baptist (27-7) for a first-round playoff Tuesday night.

“I think it just says a lot about his ability to inspire his players and get the best out of them,” San Antonio Christian guard Noah Rodriguez said of his coach.

Valenzuela, 54, has been inspiring young athletes and winning games in the San Antonio area for nearly 30 years. The seventh-year coach of the Lions made previous stops at Madison, Saint Mary’s Hall and Smithson Valley and earned his 600th career win at the start of this season.

Valenzuela has taught life lessons off the court for more than a decade, having also worked as a pastor at non-denominational Christian churches. His home could be considered a ministry as well, because he and wife, Roseanne, have adopted six children.

If Valenzuela had not practiced what he preaches in terms of pushing through adversity, he might never have reached his coaching milestone. Perhaps he and Roseanne, who could not have children of their own, would have an empty home.

The family was at a crossroads in August 2016, when Valenzuela was fired as pastor of a church he created a few years ago that held services on the San Antonio Christian campus. He said the other leaders of the congregation asked him to stop coaching so he could devote more time to the church. Valenzuela said he refused to do so and was terminated.

That suddenly left him without more than 90 percent of his annual income — Valenzuela works part-time for San Antonio Christian and receives a coaching stipend — so he considered changing professions to adequately support his family. But Valenzuela took a “leap of faith” and decided to stick with the Lions, who allowed him to start a new church and continue to hold sermons on campus.

Among those who helped Valenzuela start “My Church” was Spurs great David Robinson, whose two sons played for San Antonio Christian. Valenzuela said he also received a $48,000 donation from a person he declined to identify, which supported his family while he grew his new congregation.

He said My Church now has more than 500 members, having grown by about 100 since the start of this basketball season.

“I just love what’s happening,” Valenzuela said. “I’m in the right place in the right time with the right people, and that’s all you can ask for as a leader.”

Double duty

Although he has toggled between vocations for much of the last two decades, Valenzuela’s job never really changes. He approaches basketball and church with the same philosophy, striving to help his players and parishioners reach their potential and lead more fulfilling lives.

Rodriguez said Valenzuela often sounds like a preacher in the locker room, using biblical examples to drive home messages to the team. Robinson’s son, Justin Robinson, a 2015 San Antonio Christian graduate who now plays for Duke, said Valenzuela also uses sports analogies while giving Sunday sermons.

“You just put the whistle away and open up the Bible,” Valenzuela said.

Justin Robinson said he is “amazed” at Valenzuela’s ability to balance his professional responsibilities while living with five teenagers and a grandchild. The coach regularly holds 6 a.m. basketball practices and hosts Bible studies on Monday nights.

The Lions typically play games twice per week during the season, with Valenzuela scouting opponents and divising game plans. He also prepares sermons for two Sunday services.

San Antonio Christian athletic director Brandon Parrott, who played for Valenzuela at Smithson Valley, said he also served as offensive coordinator for the Lions’ football team last fall. Parrott said Valenzuela’s two professions complement each other rather than detract from each other.

Basketball did not come naturally to Valenzuela, who could not make the team at Harlandale and instead played football. He also did not set out to coach the sport when he took a job out of college as a teacher and coach at Sul Ross Middle School.

Valenzuela said he learned the game from then-Holmes coach Bobby Jaklich. Later in his career, he learned its finer points from one of the most successful coaches in the college game.

During his eight-year tenure at Smithson Valley during the 1990s, Valenzuela attended a clinic at the University of Kansas. He requested a brief meeting with then-Jayhawks coach Roy Williams, who now leads the program at North Carolina, and ended up spending two hours in Williams’ office.

Valenzuela said he learned about calling defensive sets, forcing opponents into uncomfortable situations and keeping his focus away from the ball while studying plays and tendencies. Williams also told Valenzuela to watch games on television and pretend he was coaching as a way to accelerate his basketball education.

“That changed my whole way of coaching and preparing. It was wonderful,” Valenzuela said. “It became a science instead of just an art.”

Valenzuela still uses his own intuition on the court. That is one of his tactical strength’s according to David Robinson, a 10-time NBA All-Star and two-time league champion during his Hall of Fame career with the Spurs.

Robinson said Valenzuela is especially good at making in-game adjustments and tailoring his strategy for specific situations.

“There’s very few coaches that I’ve been around that have such a good sense for a game’s flow than he does,” Robinson said. “That’s a talent. That’s not common.”

Like father, like son

Valenzuela’s effectiveness at the pulpit might be more inherent, because his father and maternal grandfather both were preachers. He started giving sermons to fill in for his father, Juan Valenzuela, a Mexican immigrant who started Capilla Del Pueblo about 40 years ago.

The younger Valenzuela, while developing lesson plans as a teacher of various subjects and giving motivational speeches to his teams, said he prepared himself to preach without even realizing it.

“John has a calling to preach the gospel,” said his step-mother, Pilar Valenzuela.

Still, John Valenzuela has faced his share of challenges in church and on the court. He said he still has unresolved feelings of anger and betrayal over his dismissal from his previous church, which began bubbling toward the surface earlier this season.

Valenzuela said there were times he caught himself being more short-tempered than usual and expressing more frustration with his players. He sought the help of leadership both at school and his church in an attempt to cope.

The coach is working to overcome those emotions, much like his team overcame personnel losses as well as defeats. San Antonio Christian is back on level ground in terms of its record and is now looking ahead, and the same could be said about the team’s leader and his life.

Valenzuela said he did not put much stock into his 600th career win, calling it merely a number. He took more pride in what that figure represented — three decades’ worth of teaching, persevering and competing.

“I’m still marching on and still moving forward, and that’s what we coach our kids to do,” Valenzuela said. “So we’re down by 15, down by 20, lost five games in a row. Just keep striving, keep fighting, just keep living. Don’t let anything slow you down and stop you.”

Adam Zuvanich is a Houston native and University of Texas graduate who previously covered high school sports in Lubbock, Odessa and St. Louis. He pursued a career as a sportswriter when he realized he did not have nearly enough talent to play Major League Baseball.